Nakusp and Arrow Lakes

Our History

Burton

• The aboriginal people used the waterways up the Columbia River and the Arrow Lakes for coming up to hunt and fish in this area. It seems the lakes got their name from the many arrows found along the river.
• David Thompson and his men reached the Columbia River between 1807 and 1811.
• In the beginning of 1900 the Hudson's Bay Company developed the Columbia River to trade with the Indians for furs. At this time the gold miners also had their camps and boat launching just before the gold rush of Caribou Creek started.
• In 1895 Burton City was founded by the Burton brothers.
• Between 1865 and 1954 the paddle-wheelers became the main source of supplies and communication.
• In 1908 the road was built from Burton to Nakusp. In the late 20's the Monashee Pass road to Vernon was opened.
• After the miners began to leave, the loggers moved into this area and gave the valley a lot of prosperity.

Nakusp

• 300-500 years ago, three main Indian tribes came into this area - the Shushwap from the Okanagan, the Colville from Washington and the Kutenai from the East Kootenays. 
• In August 1811, Finian McDonald (one of David Thompson's men) came up the Arrow Lakes and went just above Revelstoke. He was the first white man on the Arrow Lakes. It was the 1865 Big Bend Gold Rush which brought the first steamers to the area and the first settlers arrived in 1890.
• Nakusp settlement history began in 1892 and so it became part of the fur trade route as well as the jump off point for some of the early silver, lead and zinc mining in the Slocan Valley.
• In 1882 the Nakusp Town Site was put up for sale by the Rand brothers. Twenty-five foot lots sold for as much as $30 each. The speculation had it, that if the Slocan Valley mining boom continued, Nakusp would also become a mining town.
• Since there were no roads or railways between the Kootenay mining areas and Vancouver, goods had to be shipped via water ways from Nakusp, up the Arrow Lakes to Revelstoke where the main CPR line was located. For a time Nakusp became a thriving community on this shipping route.
• The first post office was opened in 1892 in the Nakusp House Hotel, which was located on Bay street, right below the Leland Hotel. The first store also opened in 1892 as well as the first sawmill. The first news paper printed it's first paper in October 1893 and in 1898 Nakusp saw it's first church. In 1905 Nakusp got it's first phone system, and in 1908 a hospital followed and then in 1909 a bank, and power came to the town in 1920.
• The Nakusp Slocan Railway was completed in 1893 but with a smelter built in Trail, the plan for a smelter in Nakusp vanished.
• The road from Nakusp to Burton was built in 1913, the same year the Burton to Edgewood road was finished.
• In 1925, the Arrow Valley was connected with the Okanagan as the road over the Monashee to Vernon was completed. In 1930, Nakusp and New Denver were connected via road and thus, by the 1930's Nakusp's key geographical location, halfway between Nelson and Vernon and being the Gateway to the Kootenays - became apparent.
• Of course the forestry industry has always been a vital part of this town, and in 1951 Nakusp became the center of a large pole and lumber industry.
• In 1905 Nakusp had a population of 300 residents. This number steadily grew until the 1960's when BC Hydro began studying the possibility of damming the Arrow Lakes.
• BC Hydro did dam the Arrow Lakes in 1969, thereby raising the level of the Lake to the 1446' contour.
• The Village of Nakusp was incorporated November 24th, 1964 with Joseph Parent as it's first mayor. The area around the airport was annexed in 1979 and the Brouse / Glenbank areas were annexed in 1994.

 

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